I'm not saying, "can we stop wearing clothes in public"? I want to know if it'll stop making any difference as to whether or not people wear clothes. Clothes are essential to the fabric of society (heheh) and they serve very important functions, namely shielding our bodies from the elements and keeping us warm.
Kjaggard, I know for a fact that America's general prudishness comes from our Puritan forebears. That's why America is pretty much the only free nation without topless beaches. A common American comedy trope is "fat European guy in a speedo".
I'm not saying there are no religious hang ups about nudity, but I am saying religions are not causatively correlated to our nudity aversion. Aversion to whole or partial nudity in public predates monotheism in western culture. And it's to do primariliy with that nudity being equated to sexual promiscuity. Essentially clothing has long since become a symbol of distinguishing private life and public life. and the levels of clothing even more so. somebody in a tank top and sweat pants is usually not at work. Likewise a three piece suit with tie is not often sitting at home in front of the TV with take out food (at the very least you undo your tie, and likely remove you jacket). These qualities exist even in atheists as well as 'puritans'.
Clothing also serves as a means of self expression. I wear a lot of waist coats and henley shirts, one housemate tends toward polo shirts and the other to button down shirts. in casual environments they sometimes go with T-shirts or sweatshirts. My casual is waistcoats and henley. On the occasions where I was on television I tend to wear a business button down shirt and dressier trousers (my usual style in that tends toward the sort of uniform pants you see on professional appliance repairmen. sort of a cross between dress trousers and cargo pants). It's a form of self design.
That's why I think clothing will continue to be the default expectation of everybody in public. Until such time as we and decouple nudity from sex, AND alter our bodies as a means of self expression and personal image design (which means also being able to change that at a later time should you choose to do so, and even being able to change it at different functions during the day day wear and evening wear if you will), the use of nudity will still be the most 'vulnerable' and most 'exposed' for of appearing in public.
But there are already active explorations to allow some levels of nudity to be as allowable a form of self expression. For example Top Free http://www.tera.ca/
Live content within small means. Seek elegance rather than luxury, Grace over fashion and wealth over riches.
Listen to clouds and mountains, children and sages. Act bravely, think boldly.
Await occasions, never make haste. Find wonder and awe, by experiencing the everyday.